Stomach Issues

This is going to be somewhat disgusting but I really need some advice.

I've been a vegan for 6 months now and the whole time I have stomach/bowel issues. I have to go to the toilet for #2's multiple times per day, usually around 4-5, and I'm bloated and gassy most of the time. My first visit to the toilet of the day is usually diarrhea, and the rest isn't far from it. Unfortunately when I used to eat meat this didn't happen.

I have researched and read so much, asked doctors and honestly have been told some absolute rubbish. It's been 6 months so it's not about my "body getting used to the new diet" anymore, which is the first advice I'm always given. I've tried systematically eliminating soy and nuts, adding soluble fibre but nothing helps.

Has anyone experienced this and fixed it? Or is this just the way it is for some vegans?

Thanks in advance.

Sounds like Constipation.

Even every person probably has experiences of constipation in some stage of their life its cause of poor diet. Try to consume enough fiber, fruits and vegetables and do regularly physical exercise I really helpful for you.

Irregular bowel movements or difficulty having bowel movements

Symptoms of Constipation

Insufficient water intake

Insufficient fiber in the diet

A disruption of regular diet or routine; traveling

Insufficient activity or exercise or immobility

Eating large amounts of dairy products

Stress.

Good luck

Hello Irridium....

When your colon became unhealthy, this type of issues come into the picture. Most of the people are facing colon issues due to poor dietary habits and lack of exercises. Don't increase fiber intake and give time to your gastrointestinal tract to adopt fiber and same time increase water consumption. Avoid fast and processed foods. if these are ineffective consult your doctor. Vegan foods are always safe for healthy life and by taking vegan foods you won't get any problems. I think it may be the other health issue.

Maybe you could give us an idea of what you eat on a typical day?

Quote:

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xanmurphy

Vegan foods are always safe for healthy life and by taking vegan foods you won't get any problems.

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This is very over-simplistic. A good diet can help prevent lifestyle related health problems but that does not mean that you can't develop health problems as a vegan. And that is not an argument against a vegan diet, it is just a fact of life that sometimes people get sick regardless of dietary choices.

I think maybe xanmurphy meant that the vegan foods themselves wouldn't cause problems, rather than that they would prevent other problems - i.e. the cause is likely to be something other than diet. Which it could be as infections and stress (for example) can produce these sort of symptoms I believe.

Personally I think it could be the extra fibre - you might want to ease up for a bit and eat some calming things like oats, white rice and potato. I find wholewheat sometimes causes me problems and ate white bread instead for a while (not so good nutritionally of course). I don't think six months is actually that long to give your body a chance to acclimatise - though of course it depends a bit on what you used to eat before.

Also I would suggest keeping a diary of what you eat and how you feel and see if there's a pattern. It could be that there's a food you're eating more of since you've been vegan that doesn't agree with you (I know you've eliminated some foods but it could be something else).

I found through trial and error that my body can not tolerate tofu or cashew nuts. Other nuts and soy do not bother me so much. I would get crampy diarrhea and gas/bloating, sometimes immediately upon consuming them. Even if these ingredients are minutely added to a product I have a reaction. I think consuming more beans can also cause this reaction in people not used to eating more of them. I started eating more beans years ago before I became vegan, and cutting down on meat because of bowel issues I was having back then. I couldn't tolerate greasy fatty foods at the time. It took some time to get used to the beans, probably six months to a year, and it also took time to learn the importance of and the difference it made to prepare them properly (such as rinsing them if using canned or added seaweed when cooking dried beans to help soften them and release the gases etc). Beans are a huge staple in my diet now. My omnivore husband doesn't consume them nearly as much so when he does he tends to get diarrhea and gas, but he normally eats a very low fiber diet so when he does get more fiber he has this issue because his body is not used to it. I still can't get him to eat enough vegetables. Sighs. If I were in your situation I would have allergy testing done and maybe work with a doctor or dietician and do an elimination diet and slowly add things back in. I did this many years ago. There is a very precise way it needs to be done to be effective, instead of just cutting out one food here and there. The only other thing I can think of is that if you consumed a lot of dairy before, it tends to bind a person up, so eliminating that from your diet may cause a major increase in bowel movements for a time. Just a thought. I can understand your frustration as I had bowel and what I thought were digestive issues for years and was labeled with IBS, but I knew it was something more. I had a sigmoidoscopy, barium enema, upper endoscopy, blood work, x-rays, you name it and everything was normal but I had terrible nausea, pain, and cramps. Finally I had a laparoscopy done by a gynecologist who found extensive endometriosis on my colon, bladder, uterine ligaments, and ovaries. Once that problem was removed, the bowel issues went away (though I am now dealing with many other problems as a result of having organs removed to deal with the endometriosis). Good luck in your search for answers! What you are experiencing sounds miserable.